Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
[RO1] National Institute of Statistics (NIS) (Romania)
National Institute for Statistics
1.2. Contact organisation unit
Population and external migration statistics
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
16, Libertăţii Ave, sector 5,
cod 050706, Bucharest
ROMANIA
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
2.1. Metadata last certified
22 December 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
22 December 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
22 December 2025
3.1. Data description
Data and metadata are transmitted to Eurostat by the Member States in the framework of the Unified Demographic Data Collection which is in accordance with Regulation (EC) 862/2007 and Regulation (EU) 1260/2013 and their implementing regulations.
The regional breakdown of the Member States in the regional demographic tables is done under the most recent NUTS classification. There are agreements between Eurostat and Candidate countries as well as between Eurostat and EFTA countries, for which statistical regions have been coded in a way that resembles NUTS. For more information on the versions in force, please see Eurostat NUTS.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Not applicable.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
3.4.1 Statistical concepts and definitions used in the statistics transmitted to Eurostat
One of the following definitions is used by a country when explaining the statistical concepts:
Usually resident population means all persons having their usual residence in a Member State at the reference time; for more information see the Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 1260/2013.
Legal residence population is composed of those persons who are entitled to be settled in the country at the reference date, either by holding the national citizenship or by other authorization issued by national authorities.
Registered residence population is composed of those persons who are listed on one or more registers owned by national authorities at the reference date. Each registered person shall be counted only once.
See the table 3.4.1 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
3.4.2 Statistical concepts and definitions used in the statistics disseminated in the National Statistical Institute's website
See the table 3.4.2 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
3.5. Statistical unit
Number of persons.
3.6. Statistical population
See the table 3.6 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
3.7. Reference area
Population, live births and deaths data are available at national and regional level of geographical detail.
3.8. Coverage - Time
Usually resident population starting from 1 January 2003.
Vital statistics starting from 2013.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Data is collected at unit (person) level.
The reference date for population data is the end of the reference period (midnight of 31 December). The reference period for vital and dual events data is the calendar year in which the events occurred. The reference period for migration flow data is the calendar year during which the migration occurred.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Vital events are disseminated as a press release on the 10th of each month.
Provisional data on population and migration flows are disseminated as a press release on last days of August according to Latest press releases web page.
See the table 11.2.2 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Data requested in Article 4.1 of Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not available.
12.3. Completeness
Data transmitted in Article 4.1 of Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Overall accuracy and special cases (inclusion/exclusion of asylum seekers and refugees, persons living on unauthorised or irregular basis, international students, persons who do not register/deregister, etc.).
See the table 13.1 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
13.1.1 Accuracy - unknown values
See the table 13.1.1 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
13.2. Sampling error
See the table 13.2 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
13.3. Non-sampling error
See the table 13.3 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
14.1. Timeliness
According to Article 4 (2) of the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 205/2014, each year Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with data at national and regional level as described in Annex II and related standard reference metadata (in the metadata structure definition defined for the Euro SDMX Metadata Structure) for the reference year within 12 months of the end of the reference year. According to Article 3 (2) of the Commission Regulation (EU) No 862/2007, Statistics on international migration, usually resident population and acquisition of citizenship shall be supplied to the Commission (Eurostat) within 12 months of the end of the reference year.
14.2. Punctuality
Not applicable.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Extent to which statistics are comparable between geographical areas: NUTS-3.
15.2. Comparability - over time
See the table 15.2 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
The total usual residence population transmitted by the national statistical offices to Eurostat in the framework of the Usual Residence Population data collection may differ from those available in National Accounts, Labour Force Survey or in the survey on Income and Living Conditions. The difference is given by the population coverage (see metadata specific to each domain).
The differences between Residence Permits Statistics and International Migration Statistics
Data on migration flows are estimated by National Institute for Statistics in accordance with Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007.
Regarding immigrants stocks we used component method to estimate these figures.
According to Article 6 of the mentioned Regulation, data on residence permits (flows and stock) are collected. For this part, General Inspectorate for Immigration is responsible.
The difference stems from the fact that the NIS used the component method to estimate the stock of foreign citizens.
15.4. Coherence - internal
The total usual residence population transmitted by the national statistical offices to Eurostat in the framework of the Usual Residence Population data collection may differ from those available in National Accounts, Labour Force Survey or in the survey on Income and Living Conditions. The difference is given by the population coverage (see metadata specific to each domain).
Not available.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Vital statistics (live births and deaths) as well as population figures are subject to regular revisions according to INS revision policy.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Vital statistics and population figures sent to Eurostat 12 months after the end of the reference year are revised within two years (3 years after the end of reference year) to account for late registrations of births and deaths.
18.1. Source data
See the table 18.1 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Vital statistics (live births and deaths, marriages and divorces) – data are collected monthly.
Legally induced abortions – data is collected yearly.
Migration statistics – data are collected twice a year from administrative sources, and immigrants and emigrants are estimated annually.
18.3. Data collection
Vital events (live-births, deaths and marriages) are collected via statistical bulletins filled by the Public Community Services for Persons Records within the City Hall while performing the vital record, while divorce statistics are collected by Courthouses and Notaries Public in addition to the Public Community Services.
Statistical bulletins are shipped monthly to the County Statistical Offices (DJS) where they are processed (encoded and inputted) into a database that is transmitted to the National Institute of Statistics of Romania (INS).
An exception is made for legally induced abortions, which are collected as aggregated data from the National Institute for Public Health and disseminated as such.
Vital events are collected monthly by INS through special statistical bulletins for live births and deceased. These statistical bulletins are designed by the National Statistical Institute.
Part of the migrations statistics are obtained from administrative sources, from several bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Data concerns mainly the permanent emigrations, permanent immigrations and part of the temporary immigration, especially for those coming from third countries.
18.4. Data validation
Vital events are validated in two steps: one at local level (DJS) and the second at the central level (INS).
At local (DJS) level the following processing occurs:
encoding the statistical bulletins (text data is encoded in numeric format);
inputting the data within the statistical bulletins in a database;
monthly transmission of the database files to the INS;
collaborating both with INS and the Public Community Services to correct unclear data, inconsistencies and other errors.
At the central (INS) level the following final processing occurs:
received databases are imported in the main database;
checking the data for missing bulletins;
processing the data to identify errors and missing information:
missing data or bulletins not inputted are requested to the Public Community Services via the DJS. If the data is unavailable, it is inputted according to the instructions;
statistical aberrations are verified as above, and if data is accounted for it is kept as such;
inputting errors are corrected after consultation with the Public Community Services;
microdata checking for specific causes of deaths with the Public Health Directorate.
Data processing flow for migration statistics consists in:
at the level of administrative data sources (Ministry of Interior):
Retrieving information from the database;
Sending the files to INS on the agreed format.
at central level (INS):
Validation of individual data using software made by INS;
Logical control on recording level;
Performing the tables with results detailing on various variables (gender, age, county of previous residence, country of citizenship, country of next residence, country of birth);
Data analysis;
Amending the total population with international migration balance with change of residence using software made by INS;
Data preparation for use in the statistical research on the resident population.
Elaboration of data logical control conditions For designing the IT (informatics) solution at questionnaire level were developed logical conditions:
for questionnaire’s data verification;
for verification of the correlations between the variables;
for verification of data integrity.
Logical control conditions at questionnaire level follow: questionnaire’s logical flow tracking and verification, compliance of correlations between variables, verification of framing within the limits of the data for certain variables. By integrity checking conditions it is seek the existence of data for all variables in the questionnaires.
Data on emigrants and immigrants flows were estimated based on multiple data sources, the main ones being: the data provided by national statistical offices of Italy and Spain, the “mirror statistics” on international migration (the immigrants from Romania declared by the other Member State representing emigrants on Romanian statistics and, the opposite, the emigrants to Romania declared by other countries representing immigrants for national statistics), econometric model based on small area estimation (SAE) techniques, data from administrative sources, other national statistical institute websites. It should be noted that mirror statistics are used to evaluate general trend of emigrants and immigrants figures for year 2019.
18.5. Data compilation
Vital events data collected and validated at central level (INS) contain individual records of vital events (live births, deaths, marriages and divorces) during a calendar year, considered by the date of registration.
The data is processed yearly, in April, in the year following the reference year. As vital events could be registered later than the legal interval of 15 days, database records for statistical bulletins filled for those events are appended manually to the database of the reference year; while records of vital events occurring the year before the reference year are deleted (they had been appended to the data of the previous year and already processed).
Once the yearly databases are definitive, containing only records of events that occurred during the reference year, the data is ready for aggregation into tables. Tables aggregated from the yearly database after the yearly processing in April contain semi-final data and the tables aggregated from the yearly database processing in December contain final data.
Data and metadata are transmitted to Eurostat by the Member States in the framework of the Unified Demographic Data Collection which is in accordance with Regulation (EC) 862/2007 and Regulation (EU) 1260/2013 and their implementing regulations.
3.4.1 Statistical concepts and definitions used in the statistics transmitted to Eurostat
One of the following definitions is used by a country when explaining the statistical concepts:
Usually resident population means all persons having their usual residence in a Member State at the reference time; for more information see the Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 1260/2013.
Legal residence population is composed of those persons who are entitled to be settled in the country at the reference date, either by holding the national citizenship or by other authorization issued by national authorities.
Registered residence population is composed of those persons who are listed on one or more registers owned by national authorities at the reference date. Each registered person shall be counted only once.
See the table 3.4.1 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
3.4.2 Statistical concepts and definitions used in the statistics disseminated in the National Statistical Institute's website
See the table 3.4.2 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
Number of persons.
See the table 3.6 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
Population, live births and deaths data are available at national and regional level of geographical detail.
The reference date for population data is the end of the reference period (midnight of 31 December). The reference period for vital and dual events data is the calendar year in which the events occurred. The reference period for migration flow data is the calendar year during which the migration occurred.
Overall accuracy and special cases (inclusion/exclusion of asylum seekers and refugees, persons living on unauthorised or irregular basis, international students, persons who do not register/deregister, etc.).
See the table 13.1 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
13.1.1 Accuracy - unknown values
See the table 13.1.1 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
Data is collected at unit (person) level.
Vital events data collected and validated at central level (INS) contain individual records of vital events (live births, deaths, marriages and divorces) during a calendar year, considered by the date of registration.
The data is processed yearly, in April, in the year following the reference year. As vital events could be registered later than the legal interval of 15 days, database records for statistical bulletins filled for those events are appended manually to the database of the reference year; while records of vital events occurring the year before the reference year are deleted (they had been appended to the data of the previous year and already processed).
Once the yearly databases are definitive, containing only records of events that occurred during the reference year, the data is ready for aggregation into tables. Tables aggregated from the yearly database after the yearly processing in April contain semi-final data and the tables aggregated from the yearly database processing in December contain final data.
See the table 18.1 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
Annually.
According to Article 4 (2) of the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 205/2014, each year Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with data at national and regional level as described in Annex II and related standard reference metadata (in the metadata structure definition defined for the Euro SDMX Metadata Structure) for the reference year within 12 months of the end of the reference year. According to Article 3 (2) of the Commission Regulation (EU) No 862/2007, Statistics on international migration, usually resident population and acquisition of citizenship shall be supplied to the Commission (Eurostat) within 12 months of the end of the reference year.
Extent to which statistics are comparable between geographical areas: NUTS-3.
See the table 15.2 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
